Police: Teen who shot himself in Orange City library stole coach's gun

Tuesday

Nov 27, 2012 at 10:29 AM

A teenager who accidentally shot himself inside the Orange City library stole the gun from a school coach's car, an Orange City police detective said Tuesday.

PATRICIO G. BALONASTAFF WRITER

A teenager who accidentally shot himself inside the Orange City library stole the gun from a school coach's car, an Orange City police detective said Tuesday.

Yardeh Gautier, 16, who died at Halifax Health Medical Center the day after a .38-caliber Taurus pistol fired and a bullet struck him in the right eye, entered Pine Ridge High School Coach Reginald Odom's unlocked car parked outside the coach's home and took the gun, said Orange City Detective Ken Jones.

The firearm was taken from a Dodge Charger registered to Odom but driven by his wife, Jones said.

"They had nothing to do with it (getting the gun to Gautier)," Jones said. "The kid stole the gun from the car."

According to a report released Tuesday, 19-year-old Ajai Blakely told police that Gautier entered the coach's unlocked car while Blakely acted as a lookout during the break-in Nov. 14.

Odom is Blakely's neighbor at the Grandville Apartments in Orange City, Jones said.

Blakely, who faces a charge of being a principal to armed burglary, told detectives he and Yardeh left University High School at lunch the following day and went into the woods near Rhode Island Avenue where they fired some rounds. Then they went to the library, the detective said.

Witnesses told detectives they saw the gun at school that day.

In the library Gautier took out the gun about 3:26 p.m. Nov. 15, Blakely said, and Gautier was either rubbing the weapon to get his prints off it or just looking at it when it fired, the report shows.

Odom's wife, also a teacher, told detectives that she noticed the gun was missing from the car the weekend of Nov. 17 and 18.

Asked why they did not report the gun stolen, Odom said because the gun was not registered to him, he thought he would get in trouble for having it in his wife's car, Jones said.

Odom's mother passed away in December 2011 and left the gun in a safe where Odom found it, Jones said.

"He was very sincere in his statement and distraught that it happened the way it has," Jones said.

The gun was reported stolen in Deltona 10 years ago, police said. The case is so old, police are unsure if the original theft report was from a home burglary or a car break-in. Police couldn't say how the gun came into the possession of Odom's mother.

Odom was an assistant football and basketball coach at Pine Ridge, and both he and his wife were on the school district's list of substitute teachers. A district spokeswoman said both were removed from the list Nov. 21 as a cautionary step until the case is resolved.

Orange City police Cmdr. Jason Sampsell said after consulting with the State Attorney's Office, police don't anticipate filing any charges against Odom or his wife.

"We don't feel there were any laws violated on their behalf," Sampsell said. "In their case, it was probably an oversight for not locking the car, but the people that obtained the gun were committing a crime in the way they obtained it."

Sampsell said authorities do not believe Odom and his wife obtained the gun unlawfully though it was reported stolen 10 years ago.

"It may have passed several hands before (Odom found it)," Sampsell said.

Florida residents are not required to register their guns, but when making a purchase from a licensed dealer -- such as Walmart -- paperwork must be filled out to send to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.